Beedie School of Business News

The 2012 SFU Nancy McKinstry Awards for Leadership in Diversity is issuing a call for nominations for the Corporate Diversity Award. Nominations are open to all companies with operations in British Columbia, and recognizes one that excels in the area of diversity. The winner of the Corporate Diversity Award will be announced at the awards breakfast on September 19. Nominations and finalists will be confidentially held and resubmitted with future nominations for a period of two years.

Nominees will be measured against the attached Nomination Criteria by the Awards Selection Committee, appointed by the University. Nominees are encouraged to provide examples of their accomplishments or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the Objectives listed below.

Senior management from the winning organization will be provided with an opportunity to speak about their successes at the awards breakfast, when a graduate student entrance award designed to support the diversity and efforts of the SFU Beedie School of Business will also be awarded. Any proceeds from the event are directed to the Nancy McKinstry Endowment that supports this award.

Deadline: The nomination deadline is Friday, June 29, 2012

Event Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at SFU’s Segal Graduate School of Business

Please submit your nomination package to:

Gordon White, Associate Director of Advancement
Beedie School of Business, c/o Segal Graduate School of Business
500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1W6
Phone: 778-782-7733 | Fax: 778-782-7831 | Email: gordon_white@sfu.ca

Sponsorship: A limited number of sponsorship opportunities exist for the awards. Please contact Gordon at the above contact information.

Please click here to download a copy of the nomination criteria.

Tags: diversity awards, Nancy McKinstry

The Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University will this fall launch a new career preparation program for undergraduate students – Business Career Passport.

The program will focus on career management and preparation and is intended to help students successfully launch their careers upon graduation.

Students admitted to the BBA degree at the Beedie School of Business from fall 2012 and thereafter will be required to complete a series of six mandatory workshops focusing on various elements of career management before graduation. In addition, Business Career Passport will offer optional one-on-one career coaching sessions for students wishing to receive more support.

“Business Career Passport will help students to assess their career interests and options and develop career management skills, ensuring that they are recognized by employers as being polished and professional during the job search process,” says Nancy Fournier, Associate Director – Undergraduate Careers of the Beedie School of Business’s Career Management Centre (CMC), which oversees the Passport Program. Keep reading…

Tags: BBA, Business Career Passport, career management, CMC, Procter & Gamble

From left to right: Sven Gebhard, Herbert Leung, Judy Zaichkowsky, Feng Li and Holly Wang

Beedie School of Business Professor and former MBA program director Judy Zaichkowsky took advantage of a recent trip to Shanghai to reconnect with a group of MBA alumni.

Zaichkowsky was visiting Shanghai to explore the possibility of hosting an SFU undergraduate field school at the EMLyon Asian campus at East China Normal University. While there, she took the opportunity to engage with several of her former students now based in China.

Beedie alumni Sven Gebhard, Holly Wang, Feng Li and Herbert Leung, all of whom were members of the 1999 MBA cohort, were on hand to welcome Zaichkowsky to Shanghai. Keep reading…

Tags: Alumni, Judy Zaichkowsky, MBA, Shanghai

Contact:
Shawn Smith, Beedie School, 778.782.9262, ssmithe@sfu.ca
Derek Moscato, Beedie School, 778.782.5038, derek_moscato@sfu.ca
Chantelle Buffie, 604.763.7211, clb14@sfu.ca
Sonam Swarup, 604.809.5477, slswarup@sfu.ca
Lorraine Wilson, 778.837.0394, mediarelations@vancity.com

Students at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University can further their social venture ideas with the launch of the new Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator (SEA) program, starting this semester at the SFU Surrey campus.

The program provides students with the resources to generate feasible business models, meet with clients to discuss project details, and gain an understanding of social impact. Students enter as individuals or teams, or join a team in the class.

With $10,000 in support from Vancity, the initiative will help entrepreneurially-minded students move their concepts towards reality and develop projects that will help address tomorrow’s social, environmental, and economic challenges. Keep reading…

Tags: Adam Wizinsky, Alee Furman, Alexis Dalzell, Chantelle Buffie, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, Fusion Kitchen, Green Dirt, Shawn Smith, social entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator, social venture, Social Venture Accelerator, Sonam Swarup, Vancity

Rick Iverson, a Professor of Human Resource Management at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly last Thursday .

Born Roderick Dale Iverson on September 3, 1959, Rick received his PhD in Industrial Sociology from the University of Iowa in 1992, and eventually joined SFU’s Faculty of Business Administration in 2001 from the University of Melbourne. Rick would go on to become an admired and highly-respected scholar, teacher and colleague within the business faculty and across Simon Fraser University, where he leaves an extraordinary academic legacy. He will also be remembered by colleagues for his sensible advice and counsel, brilliant Australian sense of humour and an unmatched enthusiasm for his work.

Rick was an exemplary scholar in every respect. He was a repeat recipient of the Faculty of Business Administration’s TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award (2011 and 2004) and the Annual Excellence in Research Award for 2005. He was also awarded the 2008 SFU Award for Excellence in Teaching — an award that can only be received once in a faculty member’s academic career at SFU.

In a prolific scholarly career, Rick published over 50 refereed research articles and book chapters. His human resources research was awarded the prestigious Best Convention Paper at the National Academy of Management meetings on three different occasions.

His research interests in HR management, organizations, and workplace issues such as occupational injury, absenteeism, turnover, and change management led him to consult extensively with organizations in Australia, Canada, and the US.

In addition to teaching and research, he was the Director for the SFU Centre for Workplace Health and Safety; and served as Chair of the Appointments Committee to recruit new faculty members to the Beedie School.

Rick is survived by his daughter Amy as well as his partner Shelly, his sister Leeann, his father Arthur and his ex-wife Dianne.

A memorial service for Rick will be held this Saturday, May 12th at 10:30 am at SFU’s West Mall Complex 3rd floor Atrium. Everyone is invited to celebrate Rick’s life with his family and his extended SFU family and friends.

Students from Simon Fraser University showed Canada what they “dared to do” when they finished among the top ten teams at the SIFE National Championship.

The competition, part of the 2012 ACE National Exposition held from May 7 to 9 at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary, Alberta, featured over 50 schools from across Canada competing for the title of national champions.

After successfully negotiating the opening round, the SFU team advanced to the final ten and a semi final knockout round. Despite a strong presentation which drew standing ovations from several of the judges, the team was eliminated by eventual champions Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Sam Thiara, Associate Director, Undergraduate Alumni Engagement, was left with no doubt that the students can take great pride in their performance. “One judge told the team that in three years of judging, he had never seen a presentation as solid as (SFU’s) and to keep up the amazing work,” says Thiara. “There were tears from our team because they felt that they gave the performance of a lifetime and they had recognition that they did an exceptional job.”

Having attended the event for the past seven years in support of the SIFE Simon Fraser team, Thiara is well placed to comment on their current and future prospects. “The students earned respect and credibility. The hard work by all showed and they were true champions.”

Tags: ACE, ACE National Exposition, Sam Thiara, SIFE, SIFE National Championship

Project Positive Charge's Recycling Robots

Hands-on experience in project management is now delivered with community impact through social engagement and sustainability at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. And in one case it has meant the advent of recycling robots.

In Beedie Professor Blaize Reich’s project management class, undergraduate students were asked to take on a project of any shape or size to develop the project management skills taught in the class. After being split into groups, the students were given free reign to choose the focus of their project.

One of the groups, Project Positive Charge, opted to use their project to address sustainability issues on campus. Students Alex Tsao, Frank Lo, Henry Lam, Robin Orford and Rebecca Wang set up ten robot-themed recycling boxes around Burnaby campus for old batteries and cell phones and have since seen their project recognised in several competitions.

“We were looking for a way to encourage recycling among students on campus and came up with the idea of a robot theme for the boxes to grab people’s attention,” explains Tsao. “Although SFU had a long-established paper and plastic recycling program, we were conscious that no electronic waste recycling program existed on campus. We set a target of 220lbs of batteries originally, but ultimately surpassed that,  collecting over 250lbs of batteries and 61 cell phones.” Keep reading…

Tags: BBA, Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam, project management, SustainableSFU

A Beedie School of Business undergraduate student has placed in the top three in the recent Focus 2040 case competition by predicting what the business world will look like in the year 2040.

Focus 2040 is open to undergraduate and graduate business students and is the first competition of its kind in the HRM and organizational strategy sector. Entrants have one task: to predict the world of work in the year 2040.

Beedie undergrad student Tiffanie Lai teamed up with UBC student Amanda Feng to enter the competition, hosted by McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business. Their presentation earned them the third-place prize, which included $2000 in prize money. It was one of four SFU entrants to reach the final 25 in the competition.

Their vision was based on the future of the business world being very much an internationalized one. “Our final presentation focused on an immense shift in global economic power,” explains Lai. “We predict that current emerging economies will overtake the established economic powers, giving rise to an entirely new generation of employees. It will be essential for candidates to be multilingual, cultured and equipped with a roster of international experiences.”

The pair researched current business trends and surveys in order to develop their vision. The judges were impressed by their ideas, which included an international nexus pass allowing people in business to cross borders quickly and easily to facilitate the internationalization of business. Keep reading…

Tags: case competitions, CMA, Focus 2040, HRM, JDC West, Tiffanie Lai

One of the ideas suggested by the groups involved a campus take on the infamous Canucks fans known as the Green Men

A group of Beedie School of Business undergraduate students have been using SustainableSFU as a model to develop their business plan writing skills – and planning a more sustainable campus in the process.

In his class focused on ethics in marketing, Beedie School of Business PhD student and lecturer Todd Green set for his students the task of drafting marketing plans based on a real-life, non-profit organization that operates on SFU’s Burnaby campus.

After the previous cohort’s experience working with International China Concern, a charity which helps abandoned and disabled children in China, Green decided to shift the focus closer to home. While attending SustainableSFU’s annual Sustainability Festival, Green was inspired by the organization’s goal of working towards a sustainable campus and decided that he would ask his next group of students to develop a working marketing plan for SustainableSFU. Keep reading…

Tags: Green Men, International China Concern, Marketing, sustainability, Sustainability Festival, SustainableSFU, Todd green

On February 6, a wine and cheese gathering was held to get our teachers involved in creating a vision for the Beedie School’s new Teaching and Learning Group. There was a great turnout, with 22 people in attendance. Shauna Jones, Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Group, gathered input on the following questions:

1. What would you envision for the Beedie School’s Teaching Group for the next three years?
2. What do you want from the teaching group?
3. What initiatives would best support your needs?

From the input gathered at the initial kickoff, a draft of the Teaching Groups Vision and Mission statement was formed:

Vision
The international business education community will recognize the Beedie School of Business Teaching and Learning Group as a leader in engaged and experiential learning.

Mission
We are committed to the collective and individual development of scholarly teaching within the BSB. We engage faculty and students to foster effective outcome-oriented learning environments. We model and share successful scholarly best practices that encourage great students.

For now, these are considered “draft” statements. Try them on and see how they fit. If you have comments or suggestions, please submit them to shaunaj@sfu.ca. Representatives from the Teaching and Learning Group will also be soliciting feedback from students before the statements are finalized.

The input from the kickoff also demonstrated several key themes about what teachers want: opportunities to learn with and from others, opportunities for teaching development, and opportunities to share with others. There were some great ideas about how this might be accomplished. It was decided to start this year with interactive sessions and expand the offerings next year. Mark your calendars for the upcoming sessions in 2012:

Interactive Polling – May 24 from 2:30-4:30pm
Language and Writing – October 2 from 10am-12pm

If you are interested in the full results from the kickoff session, they can be found here.

To ensure our 2013 offerings are pertinent to our teachers, your input is needed. Please take five minutes to complete the following survey. Teaching Survey. Please use your regular SFU login ID and password to access the survey. It will remain open until May 31.

The Teaching and Learning Group is open to all Faculty members, Sessionals and others who are teaching. Your participation is a valuable asset in bringing to life the vision for the Beedie School’s Teaching and Learning Group.

Tags: Teaching, Teaching and Learning Group, Teaching News